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OFFICIAL SAYS UKRAINIAN PEACEKEEPERS SHOULD TAKE PART IN STABILIZING IRAQ. Yevhen Marchuk, secretary of the Council of National Security and Defense, told UNIAN on 9 May that Ukrainian peacekeepers should take part in the stabilization of postwar Iraq. "I personally think that we should get involved -- this is not a war, this is something else," Marchuk said. Asked whether Ukraine may take part in the stabilization forces in Iraq without approval from the UN Security Council, Marchuk said such authorization would be "desirable." JM

UKRAINIAN, RUSSIAN TROOPS MARK V-DAY WITH JOINT PARADE IN SEVASTOPOL... Some 1,000 Ukrainian and Russian troops, mostly sailors, took part in a joint military parade in Sevastopol on 9 May to mark Victory Day, Ukrainian news agencies reported. It was the second time since Ukraine declared its independence in 1991 that Ukrainian and Russia servicemen have marched together. A similar march took place in May 2000, also in Sevastopol, where Ukraine and Russia maintain naval bases. JM

...AS RIGHTISTS CLASH WITH LEFTISTS ON V-DAY IN LVIV. Some 500 people were involved on 9 May in a violent clash at the Marsovo Pole memorial to the victims of Stalinist repression, which lay on the route of left-wing veterans marching to lay wreaths at a nearby World War II monument, ITAR-TASS and Interfax reported. Police had to intervene, clearing a path for the veterans through a cordon of right-wingers objecting to the red flags being displayed by leftist participants in the march. "Representatives of leftist parties came today to Marsove Pole on purpose, even despite the court ban on conducting any rallies, while attempts to compromise with them were unsuccessful, since they did not agree to the main demand of rightists: no red-flag march," local rightist leader Yuriy Shukhevych told Interfax. JM